India: How Safe Are You?

We woke up to the shocking news of the brutal murder of a 23-year-old IT employee in Chennai today. The scary fact about the whole episode was that she was killed while waiting to board a suburban train at the railway station. To imagine that such a thing could happen to you when it is the least likely to happen, is disturbing.

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Over and over, the topic of women’s safety has stirred debates in various academic and social circles. The sexual assault of a 23-year old girl in Delhi in 2012 brought the matter to world’s notice. The case highlighted the state of women's safety in India.

But, little has changed on the ground since then. Jisha’s case in Kerala was another example of how unsafe women are - even in their homes.

According to National Crime Records Bureau of India total of 3,37,922 cases of crime against women (both under various sections of IPC and SLL) were reported in India during 2014 which is 9.2% more than the figure in 2013. The seriousness of this figure will be more evident once you break down the numbers. 26 crimes against women are reported every hour. This means one complaint every two minutes.

The crime rate under crimes against women was reported as 56.3 in 2014. Delhi has reported the highest crime rate (169.1) compared to the all India level.

We talked to women from different backgrounds to know from them about how safe they really think they are. Behind the mask of being free and independent, do women actually feel confident enough to walk on the roads alone, not anticipating an attack?